Bike Check: LeoVelo’s Custom “The Takkro”
During my many laps around the show floor at Bespoked Dresden this year, I naturally gravitated toward the brands I already knew, totally biased, subjective, and conditioned by years of seeing their work directly in their workshop, or on social media. But every now, and then you stop, look at a bike, and think: “This looks way too good for me not to know it… how have I never heard of this?” That’s exactly what happened with Leo and his custom gravel bike.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but I want to take a step back first. Most steel gravel bikes can do the whole nine yards, from relaxed bikepacking to endurance racing and everything in between. But it’s surprisingly hard to give a steel gravel bike a truly “racy stance”. And yet, somehow, Leo’s “The Takkro” pulls it off perfectly. It just looks like it wants to go fast, and even without any real aero features, it’s one of those bikes that simply appear quick the moment you lay eyes on it. Just a personal take before we get into this bike check.
Of course, it’s impossible not to mention this carbon seat tube with its beautifully crafted seatmast, perfectly matched to the frame. Inspired by the work of Rob English, Leo told me he actually used a cardboard toilet-paper tubes to visualize how he could form all three “lugs” from a single piece of steel tube. And, as he put it so well: “Great ideas often strike in ordinary moments, like sitting on the toilet.”
So if you look closely, you’ll notice that, (when oriented the right way) the seatmast fits into the seat lug, which in turn fits into the bottom-bracket lug. All three being shaped from a single tube.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset
LeoVelo “The Takkro”
Groupset Sram RED XPLR
Crankset
White Industries
Saddle
Tune Speed-Needle
Stem and Handlebar
Tune Geiles Teil 4.0 Stem, Tune Geweih
Wheels Custom Tune Wheelset
Brakes
Sram Red
Made from Columbus Zona, the Takkro strikes a beautiful balance between bold contrasts, like its zebra-patterned fork, and delicate craftsmanship, such as the razor-thin wishbone seatstay assembly clearing those massive 55 mm Schwalbe Thunderbirds. It’s full of thoughtful details: a Columbus logo brazed directly onto the frame, rotated chainstays for added stiffness, very sleek UDH droupouts in collaboration with Dreier Cycles, and a 73 mm bottom-bracket shell to tie it all together.
Finally, the burgundy-to-silver fade was actually a last-minute solution, since Leo didn’t receive the original paint in time. Honestly, it turned out to be an incredible color combo, one of those happy accidents that becomes part of the frame’s story.
Steel and Carbon! What a mix!
🎞: Kodak Color Plus 200
📷: Leica M6
📍: Bespoked Dresden
